American weapons, Palestinian suffering, and the needs of peace

The United States is very far from a “neutral party” in the continuing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. As I’ve noted before, the US government not only gives Israel essential political support (e.g. by blocking resolutions at the security Council); it also provides most of the high-tech arms the Israelis use against their opponents including during the assault on Gaza.
This recent short report by Bill Hartung and Frida Berrigan shows that,

Israel’s intervention in the Gaza Strip has been fueled largely by U.S.-supplied weapons paid for with U.S. tax dollars:
· During the Bush administration (from FY2002 through FY2009) Israel has received over $21 billion in U.S. security assistance, including $19 billion in direct military aid under the Pentagon’s Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.
· The bulk of Israel’s current arsenal is composed of equipment supplied under U.S. assistance programs. For example, Israel has 226 U.S.-supplied F-16 fighter and attack jets, over 700 M-60 tanks, 6,000 armored personnel carriers, and scores of transport planes, attack helicopters, utility and training aircraft, bombs, and tactical missiles of all kinds.
· During 2008 alone, the United States made over $22 billion in arms sales offers to Israel, including a proposed deal for as many as 75 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters worth up to $15.2 billion; nine C-130J-30 aircraft worth up to $1.9 billion; 4 Littoral combat ships and related equipment worth as much as $1.9 billion; and up to $1.3 billion worth of gasoline and jet aviation fuel.

Hartung and Berrigan have tracked US arms transfers to Israel for some years now. Go to that link above– and to the onward links from there– to learn more details, including about which US military-industrial corporations won those contracts from the Pentagon, which helped yet further to boost their shareholders’ profits.
I was interested to be reminded how many F-16s Israel has in its air force. 226! What on earth are they all for? Where on earth do they even park that many large hulks of metal?
The F-16s and Israel’s Apache helicopters performed many deadly deeds in the recent war, including destroying a university, several schools, and the seat of the Palestinians’ elected legislature. I also learned Thursday that the headquarters of the truly excellent Gaza Community Mental Health Program was badly damaged in the shelling. (More details here.)
Someone– I forget where– quoted a Hamas supporter as saying if the Israelis really are as terrified of the Palestinians’ arsenal of extremely primitive rockets as they claim to be, then he would be happy to trade that entire arsenal for just one of Israel’s F-16s. Well, the IOF would still have 225 other F-16s left, of course. But you get the general drift of the argument…
Meantime, we US citizens need to start holding our own government– administration and congress– accountable for the absolutely vital, multi-pronged support it has given to Israel’s war on Gaza.
We should call for a total ban on all arms supplies to the Middle East pending the conclusion of final-status peace agreements between Israel and its three neighboring nations of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. Those peace agreements will certainly include provisions for longer-term follow-on arms control and security regimes. But we need to start implementing this arms embargo now. Perhaps it will help persuade Israelis that they need to solve their problems at the negotiating table, not by sowing death and destruction among their neighbors.
But if the US goes on arming one side to the conflict while pretending to be a “neutral mediator” in the peacemaking?? That idea is simply laughable.